Various devices are available to stabilize a patient and facilitate his breathing, feeding and medication delivery. Such devices are used in patients during surgical procedures, after certain traumas including spinal cord injuries, and in patients suffering from certain medical conditions including advanced Alzheimer disease. These devices include endotracheal tubes, airway devices, feeding tubes, oral airways, nasal cannulas and the like.
Because human anatomy varies significantly from a patient to a patient, properly placing a medical device in a patient's trachea requires a significant skill and is a task laced with inherent risk. The task becomes even more complicated because the insertion procedure may have to be performed immediately at an accident site, on pediatric patients, in a nursing home, on a battlefield or at a natural disaster site where many patients have to be attended at the same time.
The process of placing a breathing tube in a patient is called intubation. Devices such as laryngoscopes, videolaryngoscopes, fiberoptic scopes, as well as other proprietary videoscopes have been developed. These devices provide accuracy for initial placement, but do not provide continuous visualization or mobility of the image after a medical device has been placed in a patient. Newer devices, such as Vivasight SL or DL endotracheal tubes, provide continuous visualization, but are costly because they depend on a single use of disposable cameras and they are not transferrable from one medical device to another. The Totaltrack VLM supraglottic airway has a proprietary reusable camera for only its one device, and it cannot be transferred to other medical devices.
Thus, there remains the need for improved devices which can be easily monitored remotely by a qualified personal during placement and after placement for an adverse reaction. After a medical device has been placed in a patient, the need remains to monitor in real time the patient's possible adverse reactions such as for example, aspiration, airway secretion, apnea, etc.